The Spencer Squared Job
by DelektorskiChick
Summary: When a woman comes into McRory's asking for help and her family's safety is on the line, Nate introduces her to Eliot. But it turns out she's known him longer than anyone else... And everyone on the team must remember... Blood will out...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything except the character Sasha, her immediate family, and her aliases. Marissa Stiles and her aliases belong to my friend Rosabelle Meave Sterling, while the Leverage team belongs to Electric Entertainment and TNT (though I **_**wish**_** some of the actors did belong to… **_**Ahem.**_** Back to business…). **

**A/n: In the lovely little fantasy land that is my brain, this takes place at the beginning of season four, just after The Long Way Down Job.**

The blonde woman leaned into her car and pulled out several bags of groceries. She had a cell phone sandwiched between her ear and her shoulder. As intent on her conversation as she was, she didn't seem to notice the two men watching her from their car across the street.

"No, Frank." She shifted her bags from one arm to the other, digging for her keys in her pockets. "I am not dropping the charges." She juggled bags and keys, managing to unlock the door and set the cloth bags inside. Switching from ear to ear, she walked back to the car and grabbed the last bag. "I know threats were issued. I don't care." Using her free hand to grab her purse and slam the trunk shut, she didn't bat an eye as the two men dressed in dark clothes passed beneath the streetlight towards her. "The kids are staying with your mom, and I can take care of myself." She sighed, rolling her eyes and placing the last bag on the porch chair as the two men reached her. "Frank, have you forgotten how we met? Hang on a second."

Dropping her purse and phone, the woman spun around, anticipating the first man's move. She didn't expect the second man though. As blows landed and were traded, the cell phone squawked on the ground.

"Allisa? Allisa!"

.0.o.0.o.0.

The waitress handed off four items at the booth: three mugs of coffee and a bag of ice for the woman sitting across from Nathan Ford and Sophie Devereaux. The blonde murmured a quiet thanks and held the ice to the magnificent bruise blooming across the left side of her jaw. Nate motioned her to continue.

"Two months ago, I found some weird information on one of the servers of the security company I work for." She winced slightly. "Worked for. I'm a risk analyst. I figure out if a person needs security and what the holes in their security are."

"Worked?" Nate asked.

She nodded. "There was a file located where it shouldn't have been. I opened it, and it was a risk analysis for one of the foreign dignitaries Premium Security contracts out to. But it was how to assassinate this man, not how to protect him." She signed, then shifted the ice on her jaw. "I took it to my supervisor, a man named Rottfield. Next thing I know, I get a note telling me I'm fired. When I tried to bring a civil suit against Premium, I started receiving threats." She paused again. "I could handle the threats against me, Mr. Ford, but they threatened my kids. _No one_ threatens my kids." There was a steely glint in her eye.

Sophie interjected, "Why not go to the police?" Her accent made her words dance. "I mean, it just seems like this is the sort of thing they handle, Allisa."

Allisa shook her head. "My husband is a detective with the Massachusetts State Police, under Detective Captain Bonanno. We tried to get at the Premium heads, but they couldn't find anything on them. Mrs. Bonanno mentioned that you helped her husband last year. Please, Mr. Ford-" she put down the ice and reached out to grasp his hand, "please. I haven't seen my kids in three weeks. They're staying with my husband's mother. What if they'd been home when those two men jumped me?" She indicated her face. "Frank is an understanding man, but he doesn't seem to get it."

While they were talking, Eliot Spencer walked in. Only Nate seemed to notice him, and he waved Eliot over. "Mrs. Hilbrand, Allisa, if you're worried about their safety, we have someone who can help."

"Really?" Alissa was skeptical. "He can take on two armed men and win? You're sure he can protect-"

"Sasha?" Eliot was staring at the blonde, stunned. Sophie noticed his face.

"Nooooo, this is Allisa Hilbrand. Allisa, this is-"

"Eliot. Eliot Spencer." She turned in her seat and looked up at him with green eyes, running her thumb across an old scar on her right jawline. "Yes, we've met." Nate looked from Allisa's stern glare to Eliot's stunned silence.

"Eliot, what is going on here?"

He seemed to find his voice. "Nate, I'd like you to meet Sasha Allisa Hilbrand, formerly Spencer." Eliot got over his shock, bent down, and hugged the woman, who failed to return his embrace with enthusiasm. Shaking his hair out of his eyes, he looked back at Nate. "She's my big sister."


	2. Interlude

**A/n: First off, there are NO SPOILERS in this chapter. Yes, you CAN look at the next line and be COMPLETELY surprised by the fourth season finale. **

**This is something that has been pinging around my brain since Eliot had that line about water rights. **

**I couldn't figure out anywhere else to put this little story so it is now a brief flashback Sasha has when Nate "introduces" her to Eliot. Enjoy!**

Late Summer, 1977 -

Sasha and Eliot were sitting in the front yard when their father got his "spittin' mad" face on. He was talking to their neighbor Mr. Birchwood, and something Mr. Birchwood said about "failure to produce" and "growth not what we expected" and even "the hospital won't wait anymore" had made Daddy upset. Sash gaped at him as Daddy hit Mr. Birchwood on the jaw. Their usually friendly neighbor spat in the dust at his friend's feet.

Mr. Birchwood got into his shiny Dodge Club Cab and drove off real fast, leaving a huge cloud of dust behind him. Sasha got up from where she was sitting and brushed the dead grass from her carefully mended jeans and shirt. Helping her two year old brother up, they walked hand in hand over to their dad. Sash, at seven, knew something very bad was going on, but didn't know just quite what.

When they reached him, their father was sitting on the front step of their house, right leg out in front of him to ease the pressure on his bad knee. Their house wasn't a new house or a big house; she and Eliot both slept in the living room on the floor, Momma and Daddy slept upstairs in the attic and there was barely enough room for the kitchen and the washroom daddy had built onto it; but it was home.

"Daddy," Sasha spoke as she hauled her little brother up the step and put him on the railed porch. "Daddy, what's wrong? Why did you hit Mr. Birchwood, Daddy?"

Their father sniffed and wiped tears off his face. That scared Sasha more than even him hitting Mr. Birchwood. Daddys weren't supposed to cry.

"Daddy's just upset because Mr. Birchwood told him our corn crop wasn't big enough to pay off some money Daddy owed the bank." Daddy ran his hand over his face and his fingers rasped against his three day beard. Eliot ran over and jumped into his lap. Daddy didn't even really notice as he stared out over their front yard, waiting for their Momma to come pulling up the drive in their dusty old four door '63 Impala on her way home from her secretary job. He wrapped his arm around Sasha and muttered to himself.

"Land without water's just dirt." Then he looked up at Sash. "No matter what happens sweetheart, you take care of your baby brother." He picked Eliot up off his lap and put him on his feet in front of them. "You make sure nothing bad ever happens to him, okay?"

"I will Daddy. I promise."


	3. Chapter 2

**Once again, I own nothing aside from Sasha and her aliases. Marissa belongs to Rosabelle. And I am grateful every day that Leverage belongs to TNT and Electric Entertainment.**

"_Nate, I'd like you to meet Sasha Allisa Hilbrand, formerly Spencer. She's my big sister." _

Eliot turned back to the woman Nate and Sophie still thought of as Allisa with a smile and a laugh. The laugh was cut short, however, by Allisa's hand cracking across Eliot's face. Her eyes were stormy with anger, but Sophie noticed tears gathering.

"You drop off the face of the Earth for ten years, and you've been in _Boston_ this whole time? Frank and I live fifteen minutes from here, and you've never called? God! I can't believe you!" She pushed past him and headed for the door.

"Sasha-"

"Oh, no. I forgot," She whipped around to face him. "That's what you always do." She unconsciously rubbed her scar again, then turned to Nate and Sophie. "I'm sorry, Mr. Ford, Ms. Devereaux. I don't think things are going to work out. Thank you for the coffee." She stormed out the door and up the stairs. The bar was silent for about a minute before things went back to normal. Eliot still stood at the table, staring at the door. Nate and Sophie looked at each other, worried, until he spoke.

"Yep," he said, finally sitting down. "That's my sister all right." He looked at the two across from him. "So how are we gonna help her?"

.0.o.0.o.0.

The entire crew gathered in Nate's apartment. Parker was getting a bowl of cereal, Nate, Sophie, and Hardison all stood behind the computer table, and Eliot stood at one end. Parker walked over to her spot between Alec and Eliot, and Nate nodded to Hardison.

"Ok, this case is gonna be interesting." He gestured to the screens with his remote and a driver's license with a picture of the blonde Allisa popped onto the screens. "First time Nate ever wanted me to look into a client harder than a mark. But I found something hinky." Eliot glared at Nate as Hardison changed the screens again. "What I found doesn't make sense. Allisa Hilbrand, 42, married to a Detective Frank Hilbrand, 44, in the Massachusetts State Police. Two kids: Erin, 8, and Jesse, 6. But it's what I didn't find that's more interesting." He clicked again, and everything disappeared. "Prior to 2001, there is nothing. She's a ghost."

Eliot was still glaring at Nate. The hitter broke eye contact first, sighed, then spoke up. "Try Sasha."

Hardison looked at him, but Parker spoke up before he could question this development, waving her spoon in the air. "Ooo! Is she like me? Just one name?"

Eliot hung his head, letting his hair fall forward over his face. He muttered, "No. Try Sasha Spencer." Hardison and Parker stared at Eliot, then Nate, who motioned Alec to go ahead. Hardison looked skeptical but did it anyway.

"Okay, there's not much more on her here, but – Whoa." About five documents jumped up on the screen, all of them in different languages, all marked 'top secret.' Eliot shook his hair out of his face and started speaking.

"Sasha's my big sister, and she taught me most of what I know." He crossed his arms. "Woman practically raised me while she was in high school. Got me into sports, cooking, everything. Took care of me when I got the crap beat out of me, helped get me enlisted in the military, even though that pissed her off to no end. When I left she told me she'd always have an ear out for me if I ever decided to leave the straight and narrow." He shook his head over the memories. "When I finally did, she was always the one with the plan, always the one to watch our backs. Sash and I worked together for years before…" He winced and stopped talking.

Hardison picked up, bringing a photo up on the screens. It was Allisa, but with brown hair and a distinct lack of scarring on her face. "Before this happened?" The woman had a black eye, and she was handcuffed, being led down the steps of a courthouse. The caption said it was taken in Russia. "In 2001, she was arrested for, well, just about anything you can imagine. According to the papers, she-"

"Tried to kidnap the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation's daughter." Everyone stared back at Eliot. He was staring at the picture. He nodded towards it. "Zoom in, upper right corner, in the shadows on the stairs." Hardison did, and Sophie gasped as a much younger Eliot came into view, wire-rimmed glasses half off his face. "We were hired by someone to do it, and she wouldn't tell me who, wouldn't tell me why." He looked pensive for a moment. "She probably still won't, come to think of it." Eliot shrugged. "We got caught coming onto the grounds of the Chairman's estate. Someone had tipped off the guards, and they were ready for us. Sasha was the first in, felt that something was off, and motioned me to stay back. They caught her, I got away. Sasha took the full fall of it." He sighed, shaking his head again. "Always protecting her little brother. I broke her out the next week, with some help from our old friend Damien Moreau. That's how I stared working for him. I owed him." Eliot uncrossed his arms, shoving away from the table. "Sasha was in real bad shape when we left. Never told me exactly what happened, but she was covered in bruises, and that scar on her right cheek? Along her jaw? Stitched that up myself." He snorted softly, shaking his head. "That's why I worked alone." He rapped the light table with his finger, looking everyone in the eye. "No one close to me can get hurt if I'm the only one taking the punishment." He stalked out the door and slammed it shut.

Everyone else was silent, looking at the door, or the table, or the picture still on the screen. Hardison clicked the screen clear, and it started everyone else moving again. Nate cleared his throat.

"Alright. Hardison, find everything you can on the heads of the security company Premium. Parker, I need you and Sophie to get inside the main offices." He headed for the front door.

Sophie spoke up, "Nate what are you going to do?"

He paused. "I'm going to facilitate another Spencer family reunion." He started walking, then turned again. "Hardison, as a side thing, keep running Sasha Spencer.

"Don't tell Eliot."


	4. Chapter 3

"_That's why I worked alone. No one close to me can get hurt if I'm the only one taking the punishment."_

Eliot had stormed out of Nate's apartment and started walking. He didn't know where he was headed; he wasn't thinking about that. He was thinking about Sasha and not paying much attention to the environment around him. That is, he wasn't paying much attention until a hand grabbed his arm and pulled him into an alley.

Surprised, Eliot did what any hitter would do under attack. He struck out, aiming for his assailant's face. He expected the thud from his knuckles making contact. What he did not expect was the very feminine grunt followed by a growling, "Dammit, Eliot!"

He spun around, only to wind up with a foot in his solar plexus. He doubled over, gasping, trying to refill his lungs. As he wheezed, he looked up through his hair at his sister. She was holding a hand to her left jaw, glaring at him. When Eliot could finally talk, he rasped, "What the hell was that for, Sash?"

"That was for hitting my bruised cheek when I was just trying to help my brother, you idiot!" Moving her hand, she worked her jaw and winced. Eliot could see a new bruise beginning to bloom just above her old one.

"Help me?" His voice was still about three times raspier than normal as he straightened. "Why would you help me? Especially after the way you reacted in the bar!"

Sasha snorted, rolling her eyes. "Just because I'm mad at you, little brother, doesn't mean I don't care about you." Eliot felt a knot in his chest he didn't even know had been there loosen. "Besides," she added with a shrug as she helped him up, "you have a few thugs following you, and I have some pent-up anger at a certain Spencer family member I need to work out." As five men rounded the corner, armed with bats and pieces of wood, Sasha rolled her eyes at the look Eliot was giving her. "Frank and I have been seeing a therapist. He says it's not healthy to 'keep it all bottled up.'"

The armed men reached the Spencer siblings at that moment. Moving in rusty tandem, falling into a rhythm they'd created many years before, Eliot and Sasha began to work their way through the toughs coming after them.

Eliot knocked one of the guys to the side and into a brick wall, grabbing the other around the neck in a choke hold. "You and Frank are in therapy?" His voice was disbelieving.

Sasha struck her leg out in a high kick, snapping one goon's neck back and knocking him out. She nodded, grabbing the fallen man's wooden baseball bat. She flipped it end over end, caught it, then swung it with devastating force into another thug's gut. He fell over, retching, as Sasha spoke over him. "Marriage counseling. We've been having a bit of a rough time." She used the bat against the back of the neck of the man Eliot had rammed into the wall earlier, dropping him like a rock. The guy Eliot was holding onto finally passed out, and he let him fall.

Sasha dropped the bat and stared at the last man standing. She and Eliot were in opposite corners of the alley, the guy in between them. Sasha shot out a final remark, "But you would know that if you'd come by any time before now."

The siblings both glared at the tough guy in the middle and at the same time said to him, "Come on," using their fingers to beckon him. The guy blanched, turned, and fled, brushing past Nate Ford in his efforts to get out of the alley. Nate looked from him, to the goons on the ground, to the two at the end of the alleyway arguing in growled whispers. He heard snatches of it, from Eliot's insisting that he'd been trying to track her down, to his sister's disbelief, to mentions of only Aimee Martin's call from two previous summers being the only sign she even had he was alive, to Eliot's saying he'd gotten every Christmas card.

Things ended when Sasha's voice rose sharply, "Dammit, Eliot! I've been looking for you every spare minute! The closest I got was when I found one of your aliases listed on a country music website!"

Eliot growled and Nate could see him muttering Hardison's name in vain. Sasha was still furious.

"Eliot!" her voice dropped as one of the men on the ground stirred. The male Spencer made a move as if to knock him out again, but his sister was too fast. She snapped her leg backwards and put the guy down, then continued as if they hadn't been interrupted. "Your niece, Erin? She has leukemia."

Eliot froze. Tears began to fall down Sasha's cheeks, but Nate noticed that she didn't seem to realize they were falling. "She needs a transplant, and neither her father, brother, or I is a close enough match. Frank's an only child, his mom is too old, and the doctors say a family member is best." She started sobbing, and Eliot grabbed her in a hug as she started to collapse. "I can't lose my baby girl, Eliot. I just can't…" Eliot shushed her and rubbed his hand down her back.

"Don't worry, Sash." Eliot looked up and caught Nate's eyes. "Let's get you inside." Ford realized they had circled around behind McRory's and Eliot was asking to take his sister up to his condo. Nate nodded and went over to open the door.

As Eliot and Sasha passed, he heard him mutter in his sister's ear, "She'll make it, Sash. She's a fighter, just like us." He looked Nate in the eyes. "You won't lose her. If you do, it'll be over my dead body."


	5. Chapter 4

"_Hardison, as a side thing, keep running Sasha Spencer. Don't tell Eliot."_

Hardison looked up as Nate, Eliot, and Sasha walked in. He quickly navigated away from the pages of Sasha's personal history to some more mundane info about Jeff Rottfield, vice president of Premium Security. The look he gave Nate spoke volumes about what he'd found. The mastermind picked up on it and nodded.

"Call Sophie and Parker back. We've had a change of plans." He turned to his hitter. "Eliot, take your sister upstairs. Get her settled in the guest room." Nate grabbed his arm as he walked past and pitched his voice low. "There's some sleeping pills in the medicine cabinet if she needs something." Eliot stared for a moment, then nodded, leading a still-teary Sasha up the stairs.

The moment they were out of earshot was the same moment the thief and grifter returned.

"What is it, Nate?" Sophie asked. "First you tell us to break in somewhere, then you just call us back before we even get out of the bar?"

Nate sighed and shook his head. "Eliot and his sister are upstairs."

It was Sophie's turn to shake her head. "I don't get it."

"I do," Parker interjected. The rest of the group stared at her. She shrugged. "Ok, so maybe I don't. Why are we staring?"

There were multiple eye rolls around the group. Nate filled in the blanks.

"Eliot and Sasha had some… _personal_ issues that they needed to work out. That's done." He motioned to the hacker. "Hardison? I'm assuming you found something?"

Alec nodded. "I sent my little webcrawlers digging. From 1989 to 1995, the oldest Spencer child was one of the worst of the worst." He clicked through different photos. The first was of a very young Sasha Spencer scowling at the camera as she reached out to block it. She had very matte black hair with blood-red streaks at the ends, and her eyes were a stormy gray-blue. The next photos weren't so pretty. "Kidnappings, assaults, robberies, an assortment of different 'questioning'" he made air quotes around the word, "methods, murder for hire. I'm telling you Nate, if she'd stayed this way we'd probably be working for someone else right now to take her down." Parker and Sophie were still staring at the pictures on the screen, pictures of people with broken bones and multiple bruises and cuts.

And pictures of people just broken.

"1989?" the British woman asked. "She could only have been in her early twenties!"

"Actually, she was only 19 when she started working for one of the gangs near her college as hired muscle." Hardison answered. Now Nate was staring as well.

"Why did she stop in '95?" he asked.

"Didn't say she did." Hardison pulled up the next series of images. "From 1995 to 2001, Sasha Spencer moved from low elegance beatings, smash and grabs and hits working solo to more finessed jobs with one Eliot Spencer." The last picture to pop up was the one the team had seen earlier, of the Spencer sibs in front of the Russian courthouse. "That is, until a job went wrong. We know that Eliot broke her out of prison, but she did a few more jobs on her own before she completely dropped off the planet to become Allisa. The last one she ever took was never completed and involved breaking into a Massachusetts State Police post, where one Harold Francis Hilbrand was on duty, known to his friends as Frank." He clicked up a picture of a man with a slightly rugged look about him, and a slowly balding head of dark brown hair.

"Aww," Sophie said, causing Nate and Parker to look at her with odd expressions. She looked back. "What?" Confusion still reigned. "She gave it all up for love!"

Nate rolled his eyes as Parker made her 'I-just-saw-a-cute-puppy' face before immediately snapping back to the large screens and the photos on them. Hardison just shook his head and clicked the last series of photos up.

"Sasha Spencer officially stopped existing in early 2002. At the same time, Allisa Massard, a Canadian national, applied for a marriage license in the state of Massachusetts with Frank Hilbrand. From there on, she's your average suburban housewife. A year after they got married, their daughter Erin Cassandra was born." A young girl with light brown hair and a crooked smile beamed out from the screens in what was clearly a school photo. "And two years later, they had a boy. Named him Jesse Eliot."

Sophie made her happy noise again. Even Nate looked kind of mushy as a gap-toothed six year old with shaggy brown hair flashed on screen.

"Two years ago, she joined the PTA, and a year ago she started working for Premium. Everything was normal until four months ago. Erin was diagnosed with Acute Pro-Myelocytic Leukemia. Very rare in children, and it doesn't respond well to chemo, which Erin already went through about two months ago. She's gonna need a stem cell transplant ASAP. Ever since the treatments stopped working, Eliot's sister has been looking for him. Apparently, no one else is a close enough match. Even found some links to aliases I thought I had buried, including the Roy Chappell Ruben and the Kenneth Craniacs." The kids' photos disappeared and he muttered to himself as he typed furiously. "Thought I got rid of all those." The kids' pictures jumped back up on the screen. "Anyway, that's when she found the file on the company's server, and Rottfield fired her." He clicked everything down from the screens, clicked Rottfield's info back up, turned to Nate, Sophie, and Parker, and continued, "So what the hell are we gonna do about it?"


	6. Chapter 5

"_She'll make it, Sash. She's a fighter, just like us. You won't lose her. If you do, it'll be over my dead body." _

Sasha sighed softly and opened her eyes. The first thing that registered was the deep breathing next to her. Once her vision had focused slightly, she could make out the shape of her brother sitting in the armchair near her bed. He was leaning his head on his left hand, eyes closed, hair moving slightly as he breathed. Then she caught sight of moment in the doorway. She needed a moment to squint and recognize who it was; she'd taken out her green contacts before Eliot had told her to rest.

Nate saw she was awake and nodded to Sasha. In hushed tones, he told her, "I've never seen him sleep before."

Sasha sighed again. "He doesn't do it often. After being in our line of work, you sleep too long, the demons inside you have a nasty tendency to come alive."

From the depths of the chair, Eliot muttered, "You know I can hear y'all, right?"

Sasha blushed and Nate cleared his throat.

"Ah, well, yes. I was just coming to get you. The whole team needs to go over the plan."

Eliot shifted in his chair. "Alright. Down in a minute."

Nate paused, nodded, and left. Then it was Eliot's turn to sigh.

"I want you to stay up here, Sash." She tried to speak, but he cut her off. "No." He ran his hands through his hair. "You need to rest. See if you can get any more sleep, without any of your demons waking up." His sister at least had the decency to look abashed. "I'll come get you if we need you."

Sasha rolled her eyes, but she nodded. Eliot put his right hand around the back of her head and leaned in to kiss her forehead, and she took his left.

"Thank you. Thank you from my daughter and my family."

"I told you," he said, a grin spreading across his face. "I'm going to be sure she makes it." As he leaned back, something caught his eye. "What's this?" He pulled on a long silver chain peeking out from beneath Sasha's shirt and around her neck. She growled and grabbed it back. Eliot just cocked an eyebrow. Rolling her eyes, she reached down her shirt and pulled out a Catholic medal.

"It's the patron saint of police officers. Frank gave it to me when we first got married."

"St. Jude. Also the patron saint of lost causes," Sophie chimed in from the doorway. Both Spencer siblings jumped; neither had heard her approach, a rarity in itself. At her raised eyebrows, they shrugged in unison. Sophie shook her head. "Eliot, we need you downstairs. We have to figure out who's who on this one."

Eliot patted Sasha's shoulder and walked to the door. When he got there, he turned to say one more thing but got distracted. Sasha was looking at something else on the chain. It was a heart-shaped locket, and it was open. She was running her finger over the photo inside, and another over the scar on her cheek, a sad smile on her face.

Eliot opened his mouth to question her about the locket and the nervous habit she seemed to have developed since the last time he's seen her, but Sophie called after him.

He shrugged. It was a question for a later date.

.0.o.0.o.0.

"Alright," Nate said, calling the group to order. "I think I have a way to get inside Premium Security. We need to pose not only as clients but as employees." He turned to the hitter. "Obviously, we want to use Eliot as our job applicant. But we need someone to pose as a talented client with a stalker. Hardison, we can just use your cover from when we took down Monica Hunter, but all of the aliases of someone famous are generally played by Eliot. He can't play the client and employee, and his sister is burned. I'll go in as a manager, but-"

"Oh!" Sophie sat up straighter in her chair. "I could be an actress with a death threat or something."

The rest of the team just looked at each other. It was Nate who saved the day.

"No, I need you as a PR manager. Parker is..." Nate looked perplexed for a moment. "We'll think of something for Parker. But we still need someone…"

"Tara?" Parker asked.

"No, she's in Tashkent right now," replied Sophie, an idea dawning on her face. "But I have someone just as good." She pulled out her cell phone. "Just let me give her a ring. She should still be stateside, and she's already got a good cover in place."

She finished dialing the number and hit send. She waited for a moment, and then a grin split her face.

"Marissa, darling! Listen about that favor I owe you… Can we make it two?" There was a long silence. Then, "Good! How quickly can you get to Boston?"


	7. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Leverage or Electric Entertainment. Marissa Stiles and all her aliases belong to fellow fanfic writer Rosabelle Maeve Sterling.**

**A/n: My take on Marissa Stiles may differ slightly from Rosabelle's actual character. I needed to tweak her slightly for my fanfic. I assure everyone that I am just borrowing Rosabelle's toys, I will put them back unbroken when I'm done.**

"_Marissa, darling! Listen about that favor I owe you… Can we make it two?"_

A few hours later, one Marissa Stiles walked into McRory's and looked around. She had long, curly brown hair and blue eyes, but if you looked close enough, you could see they were contacts. Spotting Sophie, she greeted the woman with a kiss on both cheeks.

"Those two favors you owe me?" she said, cocking an eyebrow. "They'd better be big ones."

Sophie laughed. "Not to worry, my dear. They will be. Now how did you get here so fast?"

Marissa snorted out a laugh. "I was up in Belbridge, working on a cover for one of my aliases."

"Oh, which one?"

"The dancer."

Sophie chuckled. "You ready to finally meet the rest of my team?"

Marissa snorted. "Do I have a choice?" Sophie, smiling, just shook her head no.

Sighing, very obviously not enjoying this, Marissa and Sophie headed upstairs to Nate's apartment. Upon entering, all eyes flew to the new girl.

"Well, she certainly looks the part," Eliot said, scanning her up and down as he sat in his chair. Marissa gave him an eyebrow, scanning him the same way, but a light came into her eyes, as though she recognized something about him.

"So do you, Mr. Kenneth Crane."

Eliot actually blushed.

Parker snorted, and Hardison, Nate, and Sophie all hid smiles. Alec was the first to speak up. "She's funny."

Parker added, "Yeah, can we keep her?"

Sophie just held a hand over her grin. Nate shook his head as he spoke. "She's not a dog, Parker."

Nate turned to Marissa next. "Sophie said you already have a cover that would work for this job. Can I have Hardison run it?"

"Sure," the brunette replied, "but it'll check out. Calliope Verant, signed on just this past year with the new head of Kirkwood Records."

Hardison paused in his typing. Parker spoke up before anyone else could, "So that's how you knew Eliot was a real singer!" Eliot just rolled his eyes and slouched forward as Marissa nodded again.

Hardison returned to typing, then blinked in surprise at what came up on the big screens. "This is really good! Quality work… Familiar too." He looked at Marissa. "Did you do this yourself?"

"No, I hired some guy to do it, I'm not that good. He's been in and out of prison a couple times. You might know him, Colin Mason?"

Hardison froze.

"Do not say that name."

"What, Col-" Parker clapped a hand over Marissa's mouth.

"He said don't say it." Slowly, Parker sort of slid away, staring at her the whole time. Marissa just looked at her for a moment.

"Oooo-kay." She looked at everyone else. "Any other names I should avoid mentioning?"

A growl came from deep in the chair.

"Sterling."

Marissa blinked. "Wait. _Jim_ Sterling?" Eliot nodded. "_Interpol's_ Jim Sterling?"

"Yeah," Eliot raised his eyebrows, voice absolutely dripping sarcasm. "That's what I said."

"Not a problem, since I already hate the smarmy, lying, cockney bastard." The entire team save Sophie just stared. Then Eliot broke the silence, looking at Nate.

"Ok then. Can we keep her?"

The con was on.


	8. Chapter 7

_The con was on._

"So, Mr…"

"Ah, it's Brody. Aaron Brody." Eliot was making his way through his final interview. This had to have been one of the easiest personas he'd ever gotten to slide into. Hardison had basically just downgraded his military record and changed some dates (and erased others.) At least, that's what Eliot had understood of his techno-babble. He'd already passed the physical part of the interview, now it was just a matter of charming his way past one more bureaucrat in the food chain and he was in.

"It says here, Mr. Brody, that you spent eight years training with the Army Rangers, and had additional training as a hostage negotiator?"

"Yessir, and unfortunately I had to use that training several times. All interactions I worked on wound up being successful though."

"I see." The man's face betrayed no emotion. "Why did you leave the military? If you'd stuck it out another year you could have doubled your benefits."

Eliot took a deep breath. It shouldn't have surprised him that they asked this question. But it did. He told himself the sting of the memory was only there because being near Sasha had called the painful thoughts to the present. But that was a lie.

"I lost one of my best buds out there. Friendly fire. Kinda fell off the beaten path for a little while."

Yet another lie.

"That much is obvious." The interviewer said, glaring at Eliot's hair that was clearly not regulation with a very distinctive stare. Eliot tensed as the man sighed. "But we need more guys working with our clients, and you passed the combat tests with some of the highest marks we've ever seen." The former FBI agent closed the file he'd been staring at with Eliot's alias's name on it and reached out his hand.

"Welcome to the Premium Security Team, Mr. Brody. Let me get you into our system and assigned to a client." Eliot stood with the man and took his hand, pumping it up and down once very quickly with a smile.

"Thank you so much sir. You have no idea how much this means to me."

The interviewer snorted. "No, I think I have a pretty good idea. You'll be sent a client dossier as soon as you're assigned. You start tomorrow at 0800 hours. Good luck."

"Again, thank you so much sir." The hitter turned and left the room.

Now all Eliot had to do was hope that Hardison could work his magic and get him assigned to Marissa's alias.

.0.o.0.o.0.

"Thank you so much for meeting with me, Mr. Rottfield."

"It is not a problem, Ms. Verant. And please, call me Jeff."

"Well then, Jeff," Marissa said, sitting on the couch he indicated in the laid back conference area. "Call me Callie. Only reporters call me Ms. Verant."

The mark chuckled as he sat in the armchair opposite her. Nate cleared his throat.

"Oh, forgive me," Marissa gave a little laugh as she slid more firmly into her southern belle accent. "My manners are absolutely atrocious!" she motioned to Nate as he sat beside her. "This is my manager, Bob Gibson." Rottfield reached out and shook the faux-manager's hand.

"Pleased to meet you." Nate's voice was gruffer than normal, taking on the rhythms of speech he'd used for the fiddle game the team had run on the former head of Kirkwood Records.

"The lovely lady behind him is in charge of my PR. Kristy Connoly." Sophie stepped forward to take Rottfield's re-extended hand.

"Charmed." She said, smiling, glancing back and forth from her PDA. "Sorry, Callie, love, I have to take this. Is there someplace I can speak privately?"

The ever chivalrous Rottfield motioned her to a door behind him. "Use my office Ms. Connoly, there shouldn't be anybody there right now."

"Thank you ever so." Sophie ducked through the open doorway.

"Callie here has been having some issues with one of her fans." Nate said as he reached into his jacket pocket. He pulled out a rather thick file, handing it to Rottfield.

"This fan is named James Kirsch, and he's got a history of these sorts of crimes." Rottfield opened the file, and there was a photo of Hardison with crazy hair and a lazy eye. Marissa failed to completely smother a snort of laughter. When the Premium VP looked at her though, she had a cover ready to go.

"I'm sorry Jeff, it's just every time I see that man I get chills."

"Mr. Kirsch is generally non-violent according to his jacket, but just two days ago he attempted to break into Callie's house." Rottfield looked up, one eyebrow raised.

"That's very serious, Mr. Gibson. I suppose we should get Callie here our very best, shouldn't we?" Marissa rolled her eyes at the condescending tone as the security manager rose and turned to a computer terminal. "Well, would you look here?" Jeff Rottfield's voice sounded surprised. "Looks like we just got a new hire today, highest score ever in our defensive tests."

Marissa and Nate just looked at each other. There was only one person that could be.

"His name is Aaron Brody, and he's new, but his resume says he has combat experience and numerous recommendations. I'd say he's the best we've got." Nate and Marissa looked at each other, then responded in unison.

"He's perfect."


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: Sorry it has been so long since I last updated; my family and I are going through a bit of a rough patch and I just haven't been able to post. Updates may be sporadic from now on… But enjoy!**

"_His name is Aaron Brody, and he's new, but I'd say he's the best we've got." _

"_He's perfect."_

While all of this was going on, in the next room Sophie was doing a little digging. The head grifter sat at the desk and plugged in a flash drive to Rottfield's computer and while that was running, she aimed her button cam around the room. Parker's voice in her ear made her stop.

"Got a wall safe. Move the picture." As Sophie swung the picture out, Parker made her I love puppies noise. "Aww, it's a Glenn-Rieder dial lock behind a painting on hinges. So cute!" Sophie just shook her head and kept glancing at the computer screen. Then Sophie spoke into her earbud.

"Hardison, are you getting all this?"

The voice on the other end held bad news.

"Yes, but I'm afraid this ain't good. You guys need to clear out of there, and _fast_. This guy is way more crooked than we thought."

.0.o.0.o.0.

The team showed up in ones and twos. Eliot was the first to arrive, having been waiting in the bar for the all clear to be called. Parker and Nate walked in a few minutes later, discussing the best techniques for cutting glass. Apparently there was another way to get back into Jeff Rottfield's office, but it involved a ten story drop from the outside. Marissa and Sophie were the last to get there, and they arrived laughing at something about Venice. Hardison was pacing back and forth in front of the wall screens. Everyone grew silent as they felt his fear permeating the room. Nate broke the silence first.

"Hardison, what's going on?" The hacker stopped short and glared at Nate.

"What's going on? What's going on?!" He yelled, gesturing wildly at the screen as hundreds of files flew up on them. "_This_ is what's going on." Hardison opened one at random. "This right here is a diagram of the hotel room where one of the clients of Premium Security is staying. It includes detailed descriptions of routes in and out of the room and how to kill the person in it." He opened another. "This is one describing the layout of the stage a different client will be playing on in two days, with instructions on how to kill everyone on it and how to get away clean. All the files are the same." Hardison turned back to the group. "But that's not even the best part." He clicked behind him and a web page came up. "I decrypted _that_ off Rottfield's hard drive. It's a site he's created telling people who he's protecting and how to contact him if they want to purchase one of the files." He sat down hard in his chair at the end of the light table. "_That_ is what's going on."

Everyone stared at the screens. None of them could believe what was going on. As one, they jumped as footsteps came down the stairs. Sasha's voice sounded tired.

"What's going on? Why is everyone yelling?" Marissa stiffened almost imperceptibly. Sophie looked at her funny as Eliot got up and walked over to his sister.

"It's nothing Sash. Just some stuff from Rottfield." Sasha's voice was no longer sleepy; it was incredibly sharp.

"Then I definitely need to know what it is."

"No, you definitely don't. Just go back upstairs and try to-"

"Eliot Spencer," Sasha's voice had dropped south by about ten degrees. "I swear to God if you try and tell me to 'get some more sleep' I will whup your ass so hard you ain't gonna be able to see straight for days! Now tell me what the _hell_ is going on!" Eliot looked at his sister in surprise. He'd never been on the receiving end of her full rage before.

He didn't want to admit it, but it was kind of terrifying.

Sasha froze at the look on his face, closed her eyes, and breathed deeply through her nose. "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for." Her voice was back to normal, a little bit of southern twang, but way more Boston filtering in. "My accent only tends to crop up when I'm extremely tired or pissed." She opened her eyes. "Or scared. Now would someone please tell me what is going on?"

Eliot stepped away from the stairs, letting Sasha finish her descent. Sophie began to explain as she took her brother's vacated seat, letting him stand behind her.

"Those are files we pulled off of your former boss's computer. They're on all his extremely high profile clients. They're all the same as the one you originally found." Sasha sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, letting her hair fall forward. Except for the fact she was blonde, she looked exactly like Eliot did when he was upset at someone.

"Wow, you and Eliot really _are_ related!" Parker spoke up, causing Sasha to look at her funny.

"There's something wrong with you."

Eliot sighed and hung his head. "I've been saying that for years." The tension in the room lifted enough for Nate to begin working on his plan aloud.

"Ok, so we know that Rottfield is selling information that could kill a lot of people. Do we know why?" Hardison shook his head.

"I've been over the guy's finances with a fine tooth comb. Lives within his means, and is by no means middle class. No signs of unreported income, no wire transfers linked to him, and I _looked_. Hell, I've been looking for the last hour and a half, waiting for y'all to get here."

Nate nodded, as if this didn't surprise him one bit.

"Alright. That's our in." Every eye in the room stared at him. "Well, he doesn't do it for the money, right? He does it for the thrill. We give him that thrill." He stood and walked around to the front of the table. "We get someone to buy the file on Calliope Verant." His gaze paused on Marissa for the briefest of moments, then settled on Parker. "Someone he hasn't met before." Now the rest of the team, plus Sasha was looking at her.

The thief, however, was focused on Nate.

"Someone who really wants to steal the spotlight from her."

A slow smile spread across Parker's face. This was going to be fun.


End file.
